The unhampered ability to travel from place to place is important to a person's independence and well-being. However, for a person confined to a wheelchair, such opportunities for travel may be limited where vehicular transportation is not readily or conveniently available. In addition, customizing a car or van to make it accessible and safe for transporting a person in a wheelchair can be costly.
Although devices are known for securing a wheelchair in a vehicle, those devices have a number of drawbacks. For example, wheelchair lock-down devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,623,289, 4,805,954 and 4,973,022, are complex in design and difficult to install within conventional vehicles. Another lock-down device, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,364, requires the wheelchair to be maneuvered into the locking structure in a very precise manner in order to properly engage the device. This causes delays in securing the wheelchair and often requires the assistance of a second person to properly secure the wheelchair in the device.
Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a wheelchair lock-down device that is easily installed in a conventional vehicle such as a van. Another object is to provide a wheelchair lock-down device that is readily usable by a wheelchair occupant, into which a wheelchair can be easily and quickly engaged and released without requiring the assistance of a second person. Yet another object is to provide a device for locking down a wheelchair that eliminates protrusions such as bars or slide tracks in the cargo area of a van or other vehicle.